Cicero Foes Clash At Town Board Meeting

There they stood jawing at each other, eight days from an election and 12 feet apart. He groused about not being allowed to see the Cicero town budget. She glowered and told him he had "stupid ideas."

The confrontation between Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese and challenger Joseph Mario Moreno at a Cicero town board meeting Tuesday lasted only about a minute and had all the statesmanship and substance of a road-rage encounter.

Still, it spoke volumes about the tenor behind a mayoral campaign that has featured everything from an FBI investigation into whether the town framed Moreno on false DUI charges to accusations from Loren-Maltese's aides that Moreno beat his wife--charges later retracted by the aides.

Moreno held a press conference outside Cicero Town Hall Tuesday to criticize Loren-Maltese's management of town finances, then attended Cicero's town board meeting and waited for the moment when citizens are allowed to speak.

With a throng of reporters around him, the Democratic Cook County commissioner rose and complained he had recently tried to review the town's 2001 budget at the town clerk's office but was not allowed to see it.

Loren-Maltese denied the accusation.

"Maybe you act like this at the County Board--you are not disrupting this board," Loren-Maltese snapped. "You can sit down because you're only doing this for political purposes. You're a political candidate and we are not using this forum to vent your stupid ideas."

Moreno, who told reporters earlier in the morning he had also requested a copy of the 2000 town budget but was given only a nine-page summary, pressed on.

"Madame President, I asked for the total budget," he said. "The people of Cicero need to know how ... their money is being spent."

"And they certainly need to know how it's being spent in the county, having a $145-million deficit," Loren-Maltese replied.

She misspoke, though: The Cook County Forest Preserve District's budget is $145 million, but its deficit is an estimated $20 million.

Moreno won the Democratic primary Feb. 27 but faces an uphill battle against Loren-Maltese, garnering 4,000 fewer votes than the incumbent had in her Republican primary victory over Emil Schullo.

Before the town board meeting, Moreno and Loren-Maltese met with reporters separately and exchanged a flurry of charges.

Moreno lambasted Loren-Maltese's handling of the town's budget--$109 million in 2000--saying he could trim at least $5 million in waste and use the money to rebate $300 to every Cicero homeowner.

Another $650,000 had been set aside for round-the-clock security at Loren-Maltese's home in Cicero and her summer getaway in Indiana, Moreno said, though he added that the figure was an estimate he generated and wasn't taken from the budget.

"Why does she need to waste $650,000 on bodyguards," Moreno said.

Loren-Maltese and her aides said Moreno's charges were flawed.

The town has abated millions in property taxes in recent years, said town spokesman David Donahue. Rebating the same amount to each homeowner wouldn't work, he added, since each home's property value is different.

Loren-Maltese said she needs 24-hour protection because of the town's gang troubles. "As long as we are fighting the gangs, I will have security because my family is more important to me than Mr. Moreno's comments," she said.

Loren-Maltese lobbed her own salvos, charging Moreno relies on gangs for campaign support and has put up campaign signs in front of the homes of known gang members.

Moreno called the accusation false and, in turn, accused Loren-Maltese of having her workers swipe his campaign signs.

"If my signs are on any gang member homes, her precinct captains put them there," Moreno said.

"If there are any of my signs left, I'd be surprised. We put up 2,000, and there's a lot of them missing."